Page 103 of Knight

I’m seeing red when the words slip out of my mouth, “Like you’ll never have a real chance at being who you are?” I turn to the crowd formed around us, body shaking with anger. Buzzing with rage. “Is that why you’re fucking Allie Perez?” When I turn back to her, her face is deep red, round red cheeks making her look like a big red ball.

“What?!” A stern woman’s voice cuts through the chatter. When I look to where it’s coming from, Cindy Huang is leaving the Headmaster’s office. And she looks like she heard everything.

Her cheeks are as red as her daughter’s, her white wrap coat making them brighter. “Lea, is this true?” Her heels clack towards us, the group of students in front of her parting like the red sea.

Lea’s blinking eyes dart between her mom and to someone behind me before she stops, her eyes going wide.

Shit.

My heart drops into my stomach. I don’t need her to say anything to know who it is.

Twenty-Three

“You know what? Yeah!”

Allie speaks up from behind me, confirming what I already suspect. Whispers and gasps get louder around us. “Yeah, it is true,” she says. “I’m totally into Lea. It’s messed up, but I am and I’m tired of hiding it.”

Lea looks like a deer in the headlights but I can’t backtrack now. Way too late. I outed Lea and the person who’s supposed to be my closest ally. My best friend. Shit. Damien’s right. I’m as twisted as he is.

“Lea?” Cindy Huang ignores Allie, waiting for an answer from her daughter. “Are you a le—” She brings her long red nails to her matching red lips. “Lesb—”

Shit. She can’t even say it.

Lea stammers before she straightens her posture, turning a rigid face away from Allie, her hair whipping against my face. “No! I don’t know what these losers are talking about.” There’s a crack in her voice and that gives her away, no matter how hard she tries to deny it.

Cindy’s eyes narrow, her slender body frozen in place. It’s like she doesn’t believe a word that’s coming out of her mouth either and after what Allie said, it’s not convincing. Not at all. “You and I should talk, young lady.” Cindy leads Lea away and the chatter returns.

Taking a deep breath, I turn around, ready to spit out an apology. Allie’s watching Lea walk away like a bully walking away with her lunch money. I’ve never seen her look so hurt. She usually has emotions of steel but Allie seems guttered. And I’m to blame. There’s even a quiver in her bottom lip but if she’s anything like me, she won’t let us see her cry.

“Allie I—”

She puts her hand up, stopping me with a shake of her head, her eyebrows knitting like she’s trying to piece it all together. “I hope that helps, Jo.” That’s the last thing she says before she walks away, her glasses in her hand.

“Shit, Scandal,” Nate’s voice comes from behind me and he doesn’t need to say it. I already feel like absolute scum. His upper lip nearly reaches his nose, like I’m the pile of shit that I know I am. “That wasn’t even scandalous, that was just … bitchy. You fit into this school more than you realize.” He gives me a cut of the eye before he shakes his head and does a light jog to catch up to Allie.

Well if I didn’t feel lonely before, I sure as hell do now.

I don’t even register what I’m doing until I’m almost in front of his face. I need a shoulder. A punching bag. Anything. And if Damien was trying to prove that I’m like him, then he did exactly that. Christian starts to walk away when he sees me approaching and Damien doesn’t change his posture, slumping against his locker.

“You weren’t lying,” I say, shoulders dropping when I‘m in front of him. I’m holding back tears, holding back all the normal human emotion you’d get after embarrassing your closest friend. He arches a thick eyebrow with a smug look on his face as if he already knows what I’m here to say. “Lea’s the one that ruined my art project.”

“So you’re not stupid.”

My eyes narrow, “What’s that supposed to mean? You could’ve told me when I accused you.”

“And you would’ve listened?” No. But I’m not admitting that. With a glance at my wrist, he starts to walk away, pants gripping to that tight ass.

“Wait,” I call. “Where are you going?”

“I should go after someone who trusts me,” he says. “See ya, Medusa.”

Damien leaving me standing here is worse than if he had screamed, yelled or threw a tantrum. It’s like he’s saying he’s done with me when I should be through with him. So why does it feel like he went into my chest and tore out my heart?

My body lunges forward as someone nudges into me. “Bitch.”

The whispers start again.

“Looks like she’s back on the blacklist.”

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